Tanggal 31 ... Bulan 8 .. 57

Hari merdeka is the one celebration that trully gets me into that holiday buzz. Like getting pissed on montana homebrew. I guess its because it always falls on a weekday and the couple of days before that people would dissapear from the office saying that they're practising for the marches only for me to bump into them during lunch breaks at KLCC. Liar .. liar pants on fire. But here, merdeka is indeed celebrated with such moderation. Moderation but with the same degree of love and affection to tanah tumpah darahku, for a lot of us here at least. Its amazing how strongly you feel about your country when your 10,000 miles away from home. The time shall soon come for me to go home again, and when i do it shall be a joyous moment i'm sure.

M'sians here have for the celebrations organized an event taking place on the 3rd Sept at the event center in town. For $50 you get a full course m'sian dinner with dance and song performances and a bit of socializing in true m'sian spirit to remind most people here of the country from which they came from 20 years ago. Most use it as a social event to get together and chat about how ugly life was like in m'sia and how good life is here after 20 years. They use it as an occasion to remember the what they had, and what they have now. Such a meaningfull event for them.

But for some, the event is meant as a comemeration of the past struggles of our forefathers, that in turn helps encourages our current struggles to survive and succeed in our beloved adopted country yet still retaining the very m'sian values that made us a great country in the first place. Alls good ends well. So as a move to support the initiatives of my fellow countrymen, i have decided to go for the m'sian merdeka dinner, although the m'sian twat who sits in front of me some m'sians hve decided to stay away saying that it reminds them too much of how they where deprived and denied of oppertunities. Go fly kite. They prefer to say they're singaporean rather than m'sian, although they often get thrown out of singapore get-togethers. I hope they don't come. The occasion would be quite an expensive one as such the tickets are priced to cover the costs. I heard that the govt is only giving $200 bucks to sponsor the event. Pityfull indeed. Malaysia air is sponsoring a grand, while Opus limited (local company bought by UEM) have put up 2 grand. This definately helps but is surely not enough to cater for 500 guests. Shiver me timbers.

M'sians at work have organized merdeka lunch at a restaurant this fri. It'll be a good fri afternoon to chill out and unwind after a hard day at work. An occasion for us to talk and exchange stories on what we've been working on all this while. Hell i'm all for it so show me the way. Selamat hari Merdeka my dear friends. May your weekend be a productive one.

Say Hi to uncle Bill will ya

The company i work for can sometimes be a boring place to be in between the hours of 8 to 5. Yeah really. Theres always someone rushing off to meeting room while clutching some xeroxed documents while faint laughter could be heard in between partitions when someone tells a bad joke that even zainframe wouldn't pull. Sad mfs. But after working here for 2 years, the boredom is almost immunising and often discarded by finding something interesting to keep myself busy with, besides eyeballing clara to try to catch her nipples through the braless crack through her unbuttoned top. They have that perfect erect shape, with standing pointy nipps like katie holmes'. Guys are always eyeballing her ans she knows it. Thats probably why she often ditches the bras.

The one thing i have grown to like doing during office hours is going to the office cafe on level 2 and having a coffee with a french dude from the french capital. I would do coffee upto sometimes 3 times a day with Hector, and we'd talk about expectations, work, relationships and life in our own countries. Often we'd talk for almost 1 hour in the cafe.

Hes been a good friend these last couple of months. Hector has worked here almost as long as i have, but our friendship started only 4 months ago after i got back from my asian holiday. I guess we were both too busy with work then to want to chill and bitch about the company. Hector was really a top class engineer with ground breaking skills in emerging technologies. He really knows his stuff. Often we would enter into deep conversations about technologies and how the company had failed in adopting it.

Then about 3 weeks ago over a coffee session, Hector told me that he'd tendered his resignation and was leaving at the end of Aug. I was devistated that my good friend was going away soon. To a better life i suspect. Who would i have my long coffee breaks with now? Who would i indulge in deep conversations about life and expectations with now? And who would i bitch about the company with every morning? My life would not be the same after hes gone. Words could not describe the dissappointment that went through me that evening. So i invited him and his gf over to the house for dinner on the weekend.

Hector arrived for dinner rather early that weekend. His gf was the most charming mancunian lass. Dinner was good. We chatted about lotsa things, but mainly how the company sucked and how it was a relief to jump jobs some place else.

"Have i told you where i'd be going?" asked Hector while i passed him the rice.

"No you haven't actually . .. where are you going mate?" i replied casually knowing that this guy was pretty secretive.

"Microsoft in redman .. but don't tell anyone in the office k." said Hector.

It turned out that they flew him out there for a weekend for the live interview some weeks ago and have recruited him to help work on their new product just launched last month. I was really happy for him, but yet dissapointed that i would have to find a new coffee mate. Good luck Hector. Say hi to uncle bill for me will ya.

Ananda and the Siamese Monk

I can't believe the govt now wants pre-paid SIMs to be registered. Its got to be one of the worst desicions of the year no doubt. Blow me hard. The blow me somemore. With this rather authoritative legislation, the govt through telco operators could eventually move to identify any registered subscriber when a call is made or SMS is sent anywhere in the country. This is all not possible at the moment as pre-paid services were designed to be a short term calling service thats cheap, nasty and easy to subscribe to.

That is probably why this service is was so appealing to the public, especially in a rather fragile subscription based economy where comidities and services have a shorter life cyle compared to in the US or europe. Its low price and uncomplicated provisioning methods make it a success in this country.

In a hasty move to regulate the all-this-while non-regulated but competitive telecoms industry, the govt has passed a recent law that requires pre-paid SIMs to be registered. This legislation is seen as a bold move to underscore the need to id and eventually prosecute unpatriotic calls or rumour-based SMSs', which are said to be the main causes of instability within governmental domains. The story was that some senior ministers were getting unsolicited SMS msgs complaining about their free bungalows and wild swinger AP parties. What pissed them off was that they couldn't get the cops to take any action on this for they had no idea where the SMSs were being sent from. Then on the weekends while some ministers were at their gf's seri ayu apartment, someone calls and shouts obscenities over the phone. And again these rich dudes could do nothing, except create a law that helps to protect them.

All is good for the govt, but what does this mean for normal subscribers? For one experts say this additional regulatory framework would need a new system and procedure put in place to manage this entire cycle, where operators would as they often do, would get the public to pay for the whole thing. Isn't increased petrol prices enough to stuff us average joes? Now you bring this down on us, just because you were paranoid about who sent you the laced SMS last nite? Get real. Live with it will you?

The level of regulatory enforcement here is expected to hinder and stump the burst of subscribers that fuel the expansion of the telecoms industry that out country had witness over the recent years. Uncle SAM, papa Joe, hishamudin Authorities can filter through calls and messages to id political opponents, hate messages or internal rumours. It all works nicely for them .... but is it good enough for us? You be the judge.

Its been 5 years since ....

Just came back from the city after another session of an ongoing chat i've been having with company X as a potential employer. Company X was a company that had offered me a position in 2001 that i declined after signing the appointment letter, due to objections from my then current employer. Back then, i went through 3 rounds of interviews before they offered me the position which i eagerly signed off and returned to then. The job was supposed to have started in 2 months so i carried on to submit my resignation from my current employer then and proceeded to party for the remaining 2 months.

But on my employer's side things were different. Trouble was brewing. The fact that they were in the midst of setting up a new company with me as a composite member of the senior management, pissed them off to have received my tender. At first i tghought my GM had a crush on me. Shes the type of chick that loves wearing office skirts that would slit open all the way up to her toned butt i noticed. The shirt she always wore would always miss the top button to flash some black lace bra. For a divorcee, she was pretty hot stuff. Through her tight think top, you could see that her body was that of a virgin, tight on the butt cheeks and firm on the breasts. Many times i thought of bathing her in milk and honey and then drinking her dry. But that day, she was my adversary. Someone that stood in the way of my final escapade to a better paycheck and reserved parking. The management quoted clauses in my employment contract and was ready to file for damages if i did leave. And so I was virtually forced to retract my resignation and stay on with the company, only for them to go bankrupt a few months later. Crap .. crap .. crap.

So now, only time would tell if Company X would want me again after i virtually tore up their appointment letter to their face, in favour for my GM's transparent balck knickers. Time will tell.

What m'sians far from home talk about

They say a picture paints a thousand words. UMNO youth did paint a thousand words at the recent UMNO general assembly when hishamuddin gave a firery speech on the malay agenda. Waving a keris, he solemnly declared that malay soverienity in the country should be restrored and reflected in the new economic plan. I was wondering what the average Joe and normal Jane thinks of this whole fiasco?

Here it is implied that much of the country's current resources, oppertunities and future have continuosly been monopolized by a particular sosio-economic society, that denies a fair share to the rest of the country. Does this implication stand? Or is it just blatant lie and an avenue to garner support to further strenghten the organization's position in the government? It is indeed a monumental event in the recent UMNO general assembly for an address of this proportion to take place now is it not? What does the country think about it? Is it a good thing or will it be a factor of civil destruction to hinder our already late progression of the country into the new era economic prosperity and civil tolerance. What do you think of this?